The shuttle had dropped Mace and Jenny at the Bunker Hill memorial. A short jog had them standing across the street from the Constitution Marina.
Jenny said, “We have another roof sitting right here. Do we do as we did last time?”
Mace replied, “I think we have to. It’s the high ground. My concern this time is there must be a hundred fifty soldiers up there.”
“Yeah, but we have those utility walls up there that are laid out perfectly for a running assault.”
Mace winced. “That crossover is a problem. We start clearing one end and we may have trouble getting past that.”
Jenny replied, “They can’t see us. Other than a little roiling of the air, you can’t tell where we’re firing from. Doubtful they would just start to randomly shoot at the other side.”
Mace said, “When clearing out an area it’s imperative that you have minimal exposure. That span going across doesn’t offer any cover whatsoever. I’m just saying… I’ve done this enough to know I don’t like it.”
Jenny patted him on the shoulder. “What options do we have?”
Mace said, “We’ll have to split up. When we get up there, you go behind that far utility wall. When you hear me start things up, take out anyone inside there. When I have the other top cleared, you move out from your side. Make your way north and then around. I’ll keep anyone from getting behind that wall from my side. When you’re done I’ll seal my door. After that, we start on the troops down on the deck. We clear everything around the base of that building. Then we focus on the park.”
“Lead the way.”
They crossed Chelsea Street and entered the building. Mace used his fist to subdue the two guards standing beside the stairwell. A quick sprint up the four flights of stairs had them at the door to the roof, where another guard was taken out by hand. Jenny slipped onto the roof and quietly across the overwalk to the other half of the building.
Mace began his assault.
Dedrus bodies flew in the air, dropping over the edge and falling four stories to the ground below. The soldiers under attack scrambled to make sense of what was happening. Mace adjusted the impact area of the roil to a wide spread. Each burst pushed five new soldiers over the building’s side. The soldiers began firing random laser bursts toward the cleared area, nearly hitting the Army Ranger on two occasions. Quick work was made of the transgressors.
As he made his way around the wall that encircled the utilities on his side of the building, Dedrus bodies could be seen flying off the roof near Jenny. When the overwalk came into full view, Mace turned, blasting the steel doors that led onto the roof. Instead of crumpling inward, they burst from their hinges, bouncing outward and leaving the stairwell coming up fully exposed. His impact area adjustment had been left at the wide setting.
In a push by the Dedrus, Jenny’s advantage was quickly overtaken. Multiple laser strikes forced her back into the utility enclosure. Mace took a single step her way before sliding to a stop as the sound of boots could be heard coming up the stairwell behind him. To go forward he would risk being trapped on the overwalk. Instead, he lay flat on the roof with his glove pointing into the stairwell. When the first faces became visible, Mace unloaded on them.
As the situation on the roof deteriorated, the one on the ground became active. Mortar blasts began impacting the area in and around the downtown end of the Washington Street Bridge. The strong positions held by the Human fighters were quickly compromised. The order was given to fall back.
The stairwell was filled with rumbles and screams as Mace cut loose on the onrushing soldiers. Impacted bodies stacked high, blocking off the stairs from below. Mac turned, hustling across the overwalk as laser pulses impacted around and whizzed by him. Two well-placed bursts by Jenny had him into the utility area and behind the wall.
Jenny asked, “What do we do now, Chief? We charge out of here and we risk getting fried.”
Mace said, “We have more than that to worry about. The Dedrus have begun their assault of the city. They’re in the process of clearing out the other end of the bridge. I think we’re about to see a blitz of the downtown area.”
“We can’t have that. We need to bust out of here.”
Mace turned toward the back wall of the enclosure. “If there’s not a door, we’ll make a door.”
He narrowed the spread of his concussion weapon. A blast into the back wall sent wood and stucco flying. Mace stepped through, violently ending the lives of a dozen Dedrus soldiers on the other side. Jenny used the opportunity to move out from her position, hammering another half dozen as they looked to their backs. Twenty seconds later, the remaining soldiers on the roof were pushed over the edge.
Mace said, “Time to stop this advance.”
Looking down from the rooftop at the two columns of Dedrus troops that marched in quick-time toward the center of the bridge, Mace opened up with his thunder glove. Jenny hurried to the side, selecting the column in the opposite lane of the bridge. A massacre of thousands began as Human snipers opened up from buildings across the river. The rapidly moving assault ground to a halt. Bodies flew as mortar rounds from the Dedrus continued to pound the area around the far end of the bridge.
Jenny said, “I see the mortars! They’re being launched from the Navy yard!”
She turned and began to move toward that end of the roof.
Mace yelled, “You won’t be able to hit them from this distance.”
Jenny looked over the building’s edge down at the courtyard below. “I know. I have to get down there.”
Mace moved in her direction as he continued to fire onto the bridge. “That’s four stories. Don’t even think about it.”
Jenny nodded. “Not even a decent tree or anything down there to break my fall.”
She took five steps back. A narrow setting on her glove was used to punch a meter-wide hole into the roof in front of her.
Mace asked, “What are you doing?”
Jenny replied, “Like you said, if there’s not a door… we make a door.”
She dropped down through the hole to the next floor. Three quick rumbles saw the next way down. The remaining windows in that office were blown out as the former Apache pilot jumped the two stories down to the deck below. Several Dedrus soldiers, looking around for the attackers, were blasted into oblivion as Jenny began her sprint toward the Navy yard.
Mace turned his focus back to the bridge, where the Dedrus were attempting to regroup. The frontline soldiers were now three quarters of the way to the downtown side. A narrow blast from that distance knocked the forward dozen down to the pavement. The soldiers immediately behind scrambled for the edges of the bridge.
Jenny reached the Navy yard, where five mortar stations were sending continuous fire toward the far side of the bridge. Five quick blasts had the stations down and the equipment in shambles. With a quick turn she was headed back toward the building Mace occupied. Soldiers running along the way were targeted and picked off in small groups.
As she reached the deck of the building, she blasted out a large glass window going in. A stairwell going up was found and cleared of the Dedrus soldier standing guard. Once on the third floor, she made her way to the hole she had originally punched through the ceiling of the top floor. A hard leap up had her through the hole and onto the roof.
Jenny shouted as she ran back toward the west edge of the building. “I’m back! Mortars are down!”
Mace replied, “Excellent work! Our forces are already starting to move back into the area. We might just get lucky and trap a couple thousand Dedrus out there. They have nowhere to go.”
Jenny opened up with her glove. “They’re coming back!”
Mace said, “Focus on those retreating who are closest to us. Let them come to you!”
It was a slaughter. For the next eight minutes the bodies in and around the Charleston end of the bridge piled up. The Dedrus commanders at the scene were unable to place the location of the attackers. Laser pulses going across the riv
er to the other side were scattered and ineffective. The sniper slugs coming back across were deadly accurate. Focus was next turned to the thousands of soldiers massed in Paul Revere Park. The rooftop again gave a perfect vantage point.
Jenny yelled, “We have troops crossing at the locks! I can’t see where from here, but they’re on the other side!”
Mace replied, “They must have built something to cross on. I’ll take this one. You focus on stirring up trouble in the park. That’s where they’re starting from.”
Mace moved over to the hole and dropped through. A blast from his glove sent two soldiers who were looking up toward the hole into an interior wall. A second hop had him on the second floor. With a leap down to the deck, he was on the street and sprinting toward the locks. The thuds from Jenny’s blasts could be heard and felt as he crossed the pathway heading down into the park.
He continued his sprint past hundreds of soldiers waiting for their command to move out. The occasional blast saw to it they had difficulty forming up. Once down at the locks, the path across was evident. Two steel buttressed walkways carried the troops across the side of one lock to the next. Two blasts destroyed the far walkway. It fell into the river with twenty Dedrus aboard. Two more blasts cleared the near walk, ending the secondary advance of the enemy soldiers.
In the distance, Mace could see Humans coming out from hidden positions as they raked over the Dedrus now trapped on their side. Mace turned, cutting loose on the hundreds of soldiers that surrounded him as they began to turn back toward the park.
As he released his rage on the retreating horde, a hot flash of pain ripped into his lower back. As he rocked forward and doubled over, several spots of blood appeared on ground. He was hit. The pain filled his eyes with tears. He hobbled over to a disabled truck, sliding down to the ground.
A straggling Dedrus soldier stopped to look at the droplets of red stain that were appearing on the ground from nowhere. A blast from a thunder glove sent him flying fifteen meters backward and into the river.
Mace said to himself. “Got yourself shot again, Hardy. Sloppy.”
A glance to his left, he saw a door opening into the building next to the locks. He slowly stood and stumbled through, quickly dispatching the four Dedrus soldiers who waited inside. He then slammed the door to the outside shut before flipping off his holo-projector.
Mace grimaced. “Way to go, Hardy. Got yourself shot in the back where you can’t get to it. And you’re bleeding like a stuck pig.”
A comm was opened. “This is Hardy. I’m hit.”
A reply came back from the Royal Fortune. “I’m on the other side of the world from you. Will be at the coordinates of your comm in twenty minutes.”
Mace winced. “Pick-up where you dropped us.”
“Roger.”
Mace stood slowly, wincing as he straightened up, and opened the door. Most of the Dedrus had fled the lock area. The injured Human slowly crept his way back toward the building from which Jenny continued to rain down terror.
He opened a second comm. “Back to the pick-up. I’m injured. Meet you there. Don’t respond.”
Mace continued to stumble in pain, slowly dripping blood. He first moved back into the park, where bodies lay strewn about, groaning from the horror unleashed by Jenny Taub. His footsteps left impressions in the grass as he walked, but he no longer cared. He crossed North Washington Street into the small park at the corner of Chelsea.
Park Street came next as he exited City Square. Each step found a pain that was deeper and more pronounced. As he entered Winthrop Square, only a hundred meters from the pick-up, he dropped to his knees. His vision was becoming blurred and his thoughts scrambled.
“Jenny… I’m a hundred meters to your south. Look for the blood…”
Mace opened his eyes to a white ceiling. A Targarian doctor was standing over him.
“Mr. Hardy. Welcome back.”
Mace went to talk but nothing came from his mouth.
The doctor held up an open palm. “Please, no need to talk. Just rest. Miss Taub brought you in. And almost not soon enough. The bullet entered through your longissimus dorsi… puncturing your right lung. But do not worry, the necessary repairs have been made. You will be up and walking about in a week. Give it three weeks and we’ll have you back pulling Ranger duty.”
Again Mace wanted to speak, but nothing came out.
The Targarian smiled. “Just rest, please. Tomorrow you can tell us all about it.”
Chapter 16
*
Mace opened his eyes. Vanessa Dowda was sitting in a chair nearby, her three daughters studiously reading through their daily lessons. Mace tilted his head slightly to the left to get a better look at the foursome.
Vanessa smiled. “Glad to see you awake. Was starting to think you’d sleep all day.”
“Is everyone else all right?”
Vanessa nodded. “All good. You managed to stall a major assault on Boston. Jenny said they would have been overrun. At the moment both sides are at a standstill.”
Mace asked, “News from any other cities?”
Vanessa frowned. “Berlin was overrun. They burned everything. Same with Mexico City, Denver, San Diego, and a half dozen other places. They’ve made substantial progress in about two thirds of our cities. We just can’t get Stark’s forces enough ammunition to keep them going. Everyone has been considering abandoning about half our drops to better focus on the others.”
Jasper walked into the room. “Well, well, if it ain’t Lame Duck Hardy, the former Ranger who would rather take a bullet in the back from his own troops than keep fighting.”
Mace half smiled. “How’s the arm?”
Jasper nodded as he looked it over. “Stump is good. Doc Jeff is working on a minimalist prosthetic. I think it’s just gonna have a hook on the end.”
Mace said, “I hope he’s still focused on the wormhole device. We need that. If the Dedrus bring even a single ship to Earth, they’re going to overrun us.”
“He’s still working on it. I think that little Tretcher boy might even figure it out for him. The kid has brains.”
Mace attempted to nod but his head barely moved. “What’s my prognosis? The Targarians tell you anything?”
Jasper nodded. “You took one of our own slugs through the right side breather. They were able to patch it. Muscle is in worse shape than the lung. You got a week of just lying here on your ass. You might as well enjoy it.”
Mace half chuckled. “Just like you enjoyed your rest?”
Jasper scowled. “A king doesn’t need rest. It’s a twenty-four hour job. I can’t take a week of vacation like you.”
“Vacation, right… where’s everyone else?”
“Out. On Earth. Blasting away at the enemy. This is their fourth run. That’s thirty-one cities they’ve managed to save or secure. But we’re losing. They can get a couple thousand rounds out of their lasers while we get twenty or thirty out of our ARs. Given our ammo shortage, that puts us at a huge disadvantage.”
“How about our casualties?”
Jasper replied, “Aside from you, everyone is OK.”
Mace shook his head. “Not what I’m asking. What about Human casualties?”
Jasper frowned. “Heavy. We’ve lost at least 15 percent of those we’ve armed. We have the people and weapons to back them up but we don’t have the ammo. Stark’s new strategy is to hold until we’ve had 10 percent losses and then to pull back. They don’t seem to be in a rush to pursue, so everyone has been willing to trade land instead of lives. You can get land back, but not lives.”
Mace attempted to sit up, which brought a sharp pain running down through his back.
Jasper held out his stump. “Hold up there, Hoss. You aren’t supposed to be moving.”
Mace settled back. “I don’t remember being in this much pain the last time I got shot.”
“Probably weren’t. We used to have the best of drugs for that. Now we have a cheap substitute the Targarians bro
ught with them. Doesn’t help as much and doesn’t last as long. The old stuff was good. Probably why you babies didn’t cry so much.”
Mace chuckled, which brought pain. “Vanessa? Any way to kick him in the shin?”
Vanessa laughed. “I could, but he insists on wearing that battlesuit everywhere. Wouldn’t do either of us much good.”
Jasper said, “I take this suit off and I’ll be feeling like I’m ninety in about two days.”
Mace chuckled with a wince. “You are about ninety.”
Jasper winked. “But I don’t want to feel like it. So the suit stays on. Keeps me young and spry. I can still chase after the girlies.”
A creepy smile and a hand gesture was made toward Vanessa’s three. They jumped up and ran screaming from the room.
Jasper grinned. “I just need to work on my technique.”
The shuttle landed in the docking bay. Jenny hurried to the infirmary to see Mace. A warm and gentle greeting was exchanged before Jenny’s expression turned to one of sadness.
Mace asked, “What is it?”
Jenny frowned. “Jordan and Liam never showed for their pick-up. We left them in Dallas. It’s been overrun. Stark’s forces are scattered in the suburbs and fleeing. We waited for the pick-up through four scheduled times. There wasn’t any activity around to suggest they were still in the area. Our bioscans didn’t pick up any matches. Could be they fled with the others. I’ll be going back out in a few minutes for another few attempts.”
Mace said, “Send someone else. You need to rest. You’ve been at it for thirty hours straight. We have plenty of other people that can fly for a pick-up.”
Jasper raised his stump, then his hand. “I could do it. I’m rested and ready.”
Mace half smiled. “Tell them I said you could. And this is just a pick-up. You go to the coordinates they give you and you sit and wait for as many time periods as they tell you to. Can you do that?”
Jasper grinned. “I can do that and then some.”
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